Sunday, March 3, 2019

2019-03-03 Big DX

“DX” is term used by ham operators to mean a
contact made outside of one's own country and today I got quite a few DX
contacts. I was itching to get out and
do a little hiking. It rained all day
yesterday and although it threatened to rain today, I thought I’d hike up to
San Marcos Mountain, W6/SC-331. There
was a world-wide
contest going on today so it allowed me to contact a lot of long
distance stations that may not normally be up.
That’s because contester’s have some really nice directional antennas
with tons of power. The large antennas
allow them to hear me and the power definitely helps me hear them, and the
contest keeps them up and on the air all day.

The Hike up and back is fairly easy 3.9 miles.
With just a 768 foot climb.The trail
was pretty damp but in excellent condition.The last .1 miles is pretty steep but I’d grade it medium.There was just one part where you need to
climb up on a rock and over due to a large step.

I watched a small set of showers come in off
the coast and move inland but they looked like they would stay to the south of
me, and for the most part, they did.At
one point it started getting windy with a bit of rain so I popped on my rain
jacket and and the rain cover for my pack.I used my small HT on the mountain top to make a few contacts while I
waited to make sure the rain would miss my position.I just don’t think using my 100 watt radio in
the rain is a good idea.

The contest was roaring along when I fired up
my HF rig.I tuned around for a while
contacting some contesters and then found an open frequency that I could use to
spot myself.I got one contact and he was about 30 miles away.I guess all the chasers take a break when
there is a big contest going on.I went
back to tuning around and got plenty of contacts.

I’ve been re visiting some of my previous
hikes and I thought they might be a little less exciting but it’s interesting
how the drive and the hike up the hill sparks memories from the previous
expeditions.I did this hike last February.I saved all my hiking routes on Alltrails.com
and it provides me with some nice references, making the planning phase
easier.You’ll find today’s route HERE.

It’s always fun to get some long distance
contacts when out doing this hobby.Japan and Russia were the big ones for me today.Although it was under 5 miles, only a single
SOTA point, this particular hike is a pretty one and it was great to get out of
the house.

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Chris Claborne is incredibly curious about technology, people and the world and is always trying to understand how things work. He's a "Technology Geek". The internet is fascinating place to learn, interact and watch from a technology perspective. He has 23+ years in IT for Fortune 500 companies and a specific interests in Cloud Computing.
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